Europe 11 rooms
Musikverein Vienna
The Musikverein is the Vienna home of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, opened on 6 January 1870 to designs by the Danish-born architect Theophil Hansen.
Arsenal Concert Hall
A 19th-century military arsenal reborn as a cathedral of modern acoustics and ancient stone. Designed by Ricardo Bofill in 1989; wood-clad shoebox layout, sandstone exterior.
Elbphilharmonie
A concert hall in Hamburg's HafenCity, built on a 1960s warehouse beside the Elbe. The Grand Hall seats up to 2,100 around a central platform and the Recital Hall 550.
Margravial Opera House Bayreuth
A 1748 Baroque court opera house, the most ornate surviving wooden theatre in Europe. UNESCO listed.
Odeon of Herodes Atticus
The Odeon of Herodes Atticus is a Roman stone theatre on the south-west slope of the Acropolis in Athens, completed in AD 161 by Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife.
Harpa Concert Hall
Reykjavík's concert hall and conference centre on the old harbour at Austurbakka 2, opened in May 2011. The glass facade is by Olafur Eliasson and the architects.
The Concertgebouw
A beacon of precision acoustics and understated Dutch elegance. The hall opened in 1888 and remains one of the world's most acoustically revered concert venues.
Palau de la Música Catalana
A modernist cathedral for sound: stained glass, mosaics, and sculpted light form a kaleidoscopic cocoon for every note.
KOKO
Restored 1900s theatre with modern production. Eclectic bookings, cinematic interiors. Red velvet meets LED. Nostalgia meets next-wave.
Snape Maltings Concert Hall
Snape Maltings Concert Hall is a converted Victorian malthouse on the banks of the River Alde in Snape, Suffolk.
The Glasshouse International Centre for Music
The Glasshouse International Centre for Music stands on the Gateshead bank of the River Tyne at Gateshead Quays, facing Newcastle.
Africa 2 rooms
Cairo Opera House
The main performing arts venue of the Egyptian capital, completed 1988 on Gezira Island in the Nile, in the Zamalek district. Home of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra and Cairo Opera Ballet.
Cape Town City Hall
An Edwardian civic building completed 1905, built in honey-coloured Bath stone on the Grand Parade. Home of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra.
Asia 12 rooms
Chapel of Sound
Open Architecture's 2021 cliff-side concert hall in the Chengde mountains, two hours from Beijing.
NCPA Beijing
Paul Andreu's 2007 titanium-and-glass dome rising from an artificial lake. You enter via an underwater tunnel and surface inside three halls (Opera, Concert, Theatre) under one shell.
Shanghai Symphony Hall
Arata Isozaki's concert hall of 2014 at 1380 Middle Fuxing Road in the former French Concession, with acoustics by Nagata Acoustics under Yasuhisa Toyota.
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
Home of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, opened in 1989 on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront. An oval, oak-lined hall of 1,971 seats on two tiers, with an 8,000-pipe Rieger organ behind the stage.
NCPA Mumbai (Tata Theatre)
India's first multi-venue arts centre, opened 1969 on Nariman Point.
Sapporo Concert Hall Kitara
Vineyard-terrace masterpiece in Nakajima Park, Sapporo. Nagata Acoustics-designed in 1997, with terraced blocks that throw sound across every seat.
Suntory Hall
Asia's most decorated vineyard-terrace concert hall, opened 1986. Karajan called it 'a jewel box of sound'.
Dewan Filharmonik Petronas
About 920 seats in Tower Two of the Petronas Twin Towers, opened in 1998. Malaysia's first concert hall dedicated to classical music and home of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra.
Maraya
Maraya is a 500-seat concert hall in the Ashar valley at AlUla, Saudi Arabia, wrapped entirely in mirrors so that the sandstone cliffs and sky seem to pass straight through it.
Esplanade Theatres on the Bay
Twin spiked-glass domes on Marina Bay, opened 2002. Russell Johnson / Artec acoustics in the 1,600-seat Concert Hall. An acoustic canopy that can be lowered to tune the room.
Lotte Concert Hall
Korea's first vineyard-terrace hall, opened 2016 on the 8th floor of Lotte World Mall.
Hanoi Opera House
1911 French colonial-built scaled-down Palais Garnier in the centre of Hanoi.
Americas 11 rooms
Teatro Colón
1908 Buenos Aires opera house, ranked among the world's top five acoustic spaces. 1.7-second reverb, Carrara marble, Slavonian oak, horseshoe seating.
Teatro Amazonas
Teatro Amazonas is a nineteenth-century opera house in the historic centre of Manaus, deep in the Brazilian Amazon.
Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro
1909 Belle Époque opera house in Cinelândia, modelled on the Paris Opéra. Stained-glass dome, gilded foyer, plush-red horseshoe seating.
Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Mountain arts campus on Tunnel Mountain in Banff National Park. Eric Harvie Theatre + Rolston Recital Hall. Composers write residency pieces looking at Mount Rundle.
Massey Hall
1894 Moorish-Revival lyric hall in downtown Toronto. The room where Parker, Gillespie, Mingus, Powell and Roach cut Jazz at Massey Hall in 1953.
Teatro Municipal de Santiago
1857 Neoclassical opera house in central Santiago, survived two earthquakes and one fire. Home of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Santiago.
Basilica Hudson
An 1880 forge and foundry for steel railway wheels on the Hudson River, turned into a non-profit arts centre in 2010 by Melissa Auf der Maur and Tony Stone.
Carnegie Hall
The 1891 concert hall at 881 Seventh Avenue and 57th Street, New York.
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is an outdoor amphitheatre in a natural canyon in the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles. It opened in 1922 and has 17,500 seats.
Ryman Auditorium
1892 revival-meeting tabernacle, home of the Grand Ole Opry 1943-1974. Curved pine pews, brick walls, original stage. The Mother Church of Country Music.
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Frank Gehry's stainless-steel origami above Bunker Hill, opened 2003. Minoru Nagata and Yasuhisa Toyota acoustics, Douglas-fir interior, home of the LA Philharmonic.
Oceania 11 rooms
Adelaide Festival Centre
John Morphett's 1973 white-tetrahedron roof on the Torrens, the southern hemisphere's first multi-venue arts complex. Sister sculpture to Sydney's sails. Anchor of WOMADelaide each March.
City Recital Hall
1999 chamber shoebox tucked into Angel Place between two skyscrapers. The only purpose-built concert venue in Sydney since the Opera House. Australian Brandenburg Orchestra home.
Hamer Hall (Arts Centre Melbourne)
Melbourne's concert hall on the Yarra, opened in 1982 as the Melbourne Concert Hall and renamed Hamer Hall in 2004. Rebuilt inside and reopened in July 2012. Up to 2,464 seats.
Melbourne Recital Centre
ARM Architecture's 1,000-seat shoebox in Southbank, opened 2009. Plywood tree-bark interior, Arup-tuned acoustics.
Perth Concert Hall
Howlett and Bailey's 1973 Brutalist concrete concert hall on St Georges Terrace, home to a Ronald Sharp pipe organ.
QPAC Concert Hall
Robin Gibson's 1985 modernist complex on the South Bank. 1,600-seat fan-shaped hall built around a 6,566-pipe Klais organ, the largest in Australia.
Sydney Opera House
Jørn Utzon's billowing concrete sails on Bennelong Point, opened 1973.
Christchurch Town Hall
Warren & Mahoney's 1972 modernist masterwork, restored NZ$167m and reopened 2019 after the 2011 earthquake. 2,494-seat in-the-round oval.
Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre (Aotea Centre)
Auckland's 1990 civic performing arts centre on Aotea Square at 50 Mayoral Drive. The Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, renamed in November 2019, seats more than 2,000; the Herald Theatre 186.
Michael Fowler Centre
Warren and Mahoney's 1983 concert hall on Wellington's Civic Square, home of the NZ Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra Wellington. 2,209 seats over two levels at 111 Wakefield Street.
Bishop Museum (Hawaiian Hall)
1889 Romanesque-revival hall built from local lava-stone. Three storeys of prized koa-wood display cases, a full-size sperm-whale skeleton suspended overhead.